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Night Prayer The offering of prayer late in the evening, by laity, religious orders or clergy, often called Compline, has sometimes been described as the ‘goodnight prayer of the Church’. It rounds off the day and prepares us for a quiet night. As the psalmist wrote:
I lie down in peace and take rest my rest for it is in God alone that I dwell unafraid.
Night Prayer derives its content from the wisdom of the centuries in Scripture and above all in the psalms, but also from contemporary Christian experience of God. It celebrates the awareness that each of us who tries to pray is a part of the human whole. So we are taken over the threshold from daytime, not in a mood of self-centred spirituality, but as representatives of humanity, acknowledging our creaturehood before God. [You can find an online version of A New Zealand Prayer Book/He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa at https://anglicanprayerbook.nz/index.html#contents It’s a wonderful resource for prayer.]
APPROACH The angels of God guard us through the night, and quieten the powers of darkness. The Spirit of God be our guide to lead us to peace and to glory. It is but lost labour that we haste to rise up early, and so late take rest, and eat the bread of anxiety. For those beloved of God are given gifts even while they sleep.
Silence My brothers and sisters, our help is in the name of the eternal God, who is making the heavens and the earth. Dear God, thank you for all that is good, for our creation and for our humanity, for the stewardship you have given us of this planet earth, for the gifts of life and of one another, for your love which is unbounded and eternal. O thou, most holy and beloved, my Companion, my Guide upon the way, my bright evening star. We repent the wrongs we have done:
Silence We have wounded your love. O God, heal us.
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We stumble in the darkness. Light of the world, transfigure us. We forget that we are your home. Spirit of God, dwell in us. Eternal Spirit, living God, in whom we live and move and have our being, all that we are, have been, and shall be is known to you, to the very secret of our hearts and all that rises to trouble us. Living flame burn into us, cleansing wind, blow through us, fountain of water, well up within us, that we may love and praise in deed and in truth.
INVOCATION Eternal Spirit, flow through our being and open our lips, that our mouths may proclaim your praise. Let us worship the God of love.
PSALM 121 I will lift up my eyes to the mountains, but where shall I find help? From you alone, O God, does my help come, creator of the ever changing hills. You will not let me stumble on the rough pathways, you care for me and watch over me without ceasing. I am sure that the Guardian of my people neither slumbers nor sleeps. The God of all nations keeps watch, like a shadow spread over me. So the sun will not strike me by day, nor the moon by night. You will defend me in the presence of evil, you will guard my life. You will defend my going out and my coming in, this night and always.
SCRIPTURE There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and those who are afraid are not perfected in love. We love because God first loved us. If anyone says, I love God, and hates his brother or sister, that person is a liar; for those who do not love their brothers and sisters whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen. 1 John 4:18-20
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Silence
HYMN Together, we say: God be in my head, and in my understanding; God be in my eyes, and in my looking; God be in my mouth, and in my speaking; God be in my heart, and in my thinking; God be at my end, and at my departing.
PRAYERS Into your hands, O God, I commend my spirit, for you have redeemed me, O God of truth and love. Keep me, O God, as the apple of an eye; hide me under the shadow of your wings. Preserve us, O God, while waking, and guard us while sleeping, that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep may rest in your peace.
SONG OF SIMEON- NUNC DIMITTIS Let us continue together: Praise be to God, I have lived to see this day. God’s promise is fulfilled, and my duty done. At last you have given me peace, for I have seen with my own eyes the salvation you have prepared for all nations a light to the world in its darkness, and the glory of your people Israel. Glory be God, sustaining, redeeming, sanctifying, as in the beginning, so now, and for ever. Amen. Preserve us, O God, while waking, and guard us while sleeping, that awake we may watch with Christ, and asleep may rest in your peace. Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord have mercy.
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LORD’S PRAYER Together let us pray: Eternal Spirit, Earth-maker, Pain-bearer, Life-giver, Source of all that is and that shall be, Father and Mother of us all, Loving God, in whom is heaven: The hallowing of your name echo through the universe! The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world! Your heavenly will be done by all created beings! Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth. With the bread we need for today, feed us. In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us. In times of temptation and test, strengthen us. From trials too great to endure, spare us. From the grip of all that is evil, free us. For you reign in the glory of the power that is love, now and for ever. Amen. I will lie down in peace and take my rest, for it is in God alone that I dwell unafraid. Let us bless the Earth-maker, the Pain-bearer, the Life-giver, let us praise and exalt God above all for ever. May God’s name be praised beyond the furthest star, glorified and exalted above all for ever. Together, let us continue: Be present, Spirit of God, within us, your dwelling place and home, that this house may be one where all darkness is penetrated by your light, all troubles calmed by your peace, all evil redeemed by your love, all pain transformed in your suffering, and all dying glorified in your risen life. Amen. The blessing of God, the eternal goodwill of God, the shalom of God, the wildness and the warmth of God, be among us and between us, now and always. The divine Spirit dwells in us. Thanks be to God.